1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming device, an image forming method, and an image forming program executed in the image forming device, in particular to an image forming device, an image forming method, and an image forming program which requires user authentication to start a printout process.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, an image forming device is connected with a plurality of information processing devices by way of a network, and is shared by a plurality of users who use such plural information processing devices. Here, the image forming device includes a digital complex machine (MultiFunction Peripheral (MFP), Scan Print Copy (SPC), or All In One (AIO)) having at least two or more functions of a printer, a facsimile, a copy machine, a scanner, and the like. The information processing device includes a personal computer (PC), and the like. The image forming device and the information processing device are connected so as to be communicable to each other by way of a network such as local area network (LAN) and the Internet, and constitute an image forming system. The image forming system can be constituted by connecting one image forming device to one information processing device at one to one in the minimum configuration. Nowadays, however, a large-scale image forming system is often built up, in which a plurality of image forming devices and a plurality of information processing devices are connected to each other.
In the above-described image forming system, when a user attempts to output a printed material of a desired document from an image forming device, the user specifies a data file of the document by operating the information processing devices, specifies the image forming device to execute the printout of the document, and finally inputs an execute instruction of the printout to the information processing device. The data file of the document mentioned above is a data file stored in a storage region of the image forming system.
The information processing device transmits print data including various data of settings related to the printout process and the content of the document data file to the specified image forming device. The image forming device receives the print data transmitted, creates job data from the print data, and executes a printout process based on the job data created. The printed material of the document is then discharged from a paper discharge tray of the image forming device. The user can then go to the image forming device and collect the discharged printed material of the document.
In the image forming system having above described configuration, the user may not always be near the image forming device at the time point when the printed material of the document is discharged from the image forming device. Rather, since the image forming device is shared by the plurality of users, another user may be near the image forming device. Thus, ensuring information security related to the printed material of the document discharged from the image forming device is a problem in such image forming system.
In relation to such image forming device connected to the network and shared by the plurality of users, an image forming device is proposed in which the user performs user authentication in the vicinity of the image forming device to cause the image forming device to start the execution of the printout process of the document, and the execution of the printout process of the document is started only after the user authentication is successfully completed, in order to ensure information security related to the printed material of the document discharged by the image forming device. In such image forming device, the job data based on the relevant print data is not immediately queued even if the print data requesting for the execution of the printout process is received, but instead, such job data is retained in a temporarily held state. Only after successful completion of the user authentication, of the jobs in the temporarily held state, the job registered by the user who has succeeded the user authentication is queued, and the appropriate printout process is started. Such printout process is well known as “authentication print” or “confidential print.”
Plural proposals have already been made for specific user authentication methods. The methods proposed includes: a method of inputting a user name and a password to a device through an inputting means; a method of using an IC card for information for specifying the user to be held as data and an IC card reader; and a method of using a biometrics authentication for identifying the user by using behavioral and physical features of the user. The biometrics authentication is a generic term for the authentication method of identifying and checking an individual by using physical features such as patterns of fingerprint, vein, and iris of an individual, or behavioral features.
The following patent documents will be introduced as document examples disclosing the related art of user authentication.
JP 05-250326 A discloses an authentication method and an authentication system using an IC card and a terminal device. In the authentication method, a plurality of authentication codes associated with time information is used.
In the authentication method mentioned just above, one of the terminal device or the IC card configuring the authentication system transmits to the other a random number. The other one of the terminal device or the IC card of the authentication system receives this random number, encrypts the random number by using one, as an encryption key, of the plurality of authentication codes, and creates authentication data by using the encrypted random number. The other one also transmits a predetermined signal to the former one, and transmits the authentication data to the former one after a predetermined time interval has just elapsed. In this process, the predetermined time interval has a characteristic time interval according to the time information associated with the authentication code used as an encryption key in the creation of the authentication data.
One of the terminal device or the IC card receives the predetermined signal and the authentication data. The relevant one derives the time interval between a reception time of the predetermined signal and a reception time of the authentication data, selects one authentication code from the plurality of authentication codes based on the derived time interval, and encrypts the random number by using the selected authentication code as an encryption key. The random number encrypted by the relevant one device and the authentication data received by the relevant one device are compared and the authentication is executed.
In the authentication method of JP 05-250326 A, the authentication can be completed without transmitting or receiving address information for specifying the authentication code used as the encryption key between the terminal device and the IC card. The address in which the authentication code is held and used for the authentication is thereby prevented from leaking outside.
JP 2001-216269 A discloses an authentication device. The authentication device includes a proximate sensor for detecting the presence of a user, an imaging unit for acquiring an image of the user, and an authentication unit for performing authentication by using biological features of the user extracted from the image acquired by the imaging unit, and outputting the authentication result.
In the authentication device disclosed in JP 2001-216269 A, the user does not need to start the procedure related to the authentication on his/her own, and the authentication result will not be invalidated unless the user moves away from the authentication device, wherein the authentication result is automatically invalidated when the user moves away from the authentication device. In this manner, the user is not required to perform the operations necessary for the authentication, and the security is also reliably ensured in the authentication device disclosed in JP 2001-216269 A.
Thus, not a few documents related to the user authentication method have been proposed.
The user authentication method using the IC card and the IC card reader, and the user authentication method using biometrics authentication can cut out the effort of the user to input the user name and the password to the image forming device. Thus, such methods are expected to contribute to enhancement in operability of the “authentication print.”
The job data set with the authentication print printout process is subjected to a process of changing from the temporarily stored state (temporarily suspended state or held state) to the execution queueing state (state placed in queue) only after the user authentication is completed successfully. However, such process is a process internally and automatically carried out in the image forming device. Thus, in the conventional image forming device, even the user who has carried out the user authentication cannot check whether the authentication print job has been appropriately processed until all the printed materials are discharged. Furthermore, even if the authentication print job to be queued in response to the user authentication such as one authentication print job of the plurality of authentication print jobs is not queued due to an accidental event of some kind, the user recognizes such fact only after the completion of discharge of the printed material.
That is, in the conventional image forming device, it is difficult even for the user who has registered the authentication print job and completed the user authentication to immediately recognize that the authentication print job is in what state. In the conventional image forming device, the user is requested at least to perform an operation of inquiring the current state of his/her authentication print job through a user interface and the like of the image forming device. In addition, an operation of logging in the image forming device to input the operation for the inquiring is sometimes necessary. Such cumbersome operation system is effective in ensuring security of the printed material related to the authentication print job. However, such operation system has problems from the standpoint of operability. Therefore, it can hardly be said that the conventional image forming device realizes a user friendly human-machine interface with respect to the authentication print. In some cases, significant lowering in productivity also occurs.